Last Call

As you probably expected, Mitt Romney's "big foreign policy speech" turned into something Romney probably wishes he had a time machine to correct.

Mitt Romney’s foreign policy speech Monday was filled with tough talk and slams of President Barack Obama’s leadership — but little of the clarity Romney has vowed to bring to the Oval Office.

Analysts reviewing what the Republican nominee said in what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy address weren’t impressed. The speech, they say, was much like Romney’s previous swings at laying out a foreign policy: couched in broad ideology and big ambitions and lacking the specifics for how he’d bring any of them about.

Shocking!  A Romney position speech that lack practical specifics!  Gosh, that never happens.

So while Romney was using the speech to capitalize on the momentum he had from his strong debate performance and the Obama administration’s vulnerabilities on the Libya attacks, foreign policy experts say the speech was vague at best, and reflected some confusion of ideas.

“There’s absolutely nothing in this speech. This is a repackaging of language that has been a staple of Romney’s campaign since he threw his hat in the ring,” said James Lindsay of the Council on Foreign Relations. “If Romney has a foreign policy strategy, he still has not told us what it is. The governor is very fond of saying hope is not a strategy, but that cuts both ways. He didn’t answer two key questions: what he would do differently and why we should expect what he would to work.”

The one thing Romney would do differently according to the speech is most likely start a war with Iran (after putting troops in Syria first) and as to how it would work, well...it wouldn't work.  But of course, Mitt can't actually say that.  If you thought the Romney budget was going to be a disaster before, throw another trillion dollar plus war or three into the mix and see what happens to our debt.

Mitt may have won last week, but this one's already shaping up to be a disaster as usual.

Toddler Buried By Parents, Never Reported Missing

This breaks my heart.  If called to check on the welfare of another child, one has a pretty good idea of what happened here.  The boy was never reported, which likely means either his death was suspicious or the family was in some other sort of trouble that prevented reaching out to authorities.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — A routine child welfare investigation led to the discovery Saturday of a toddler's corpse, buried in the backyard of a Long Island home.

State police unearthed the remains in the dead of night at a tidy house in Farmingdale after being told by the boy's mother that he died two years ago. The circumstances of his death remained unclear Saturday.

The boy, Justin Kowalczik, was about 17-months-old when he died in the summer of 2010, police said. Authorities said the family never reported the child's death.

"It is absolutely a suspicious death and it is being investigated as such," said State Police Major Patrick Regan. "We don't have a cause of death, and to our knowledge, there was never a report made of the child being missing."

Investigators were trying to determine how the child died and why the family kept it a secret.

Officials with Suffolk County's Child Protective Services agency initially went to the home Wednesday to check on the health of one of the woman's three children. They grew concerned when the family couldn't account for the whereabouts of a child born in 2009.

Steve Martin Gets Political

I'm not often called upon to comment on it, but I loooooooove Steve Martin.  Loooooooove.  He is a funny, smart and kind-hearted man, and a brilliant musician.  And now, I can love him even more.

(Reuters) - Steve Martin has released an off-beat ad endorsing Bob Kerrey's candidacy in Nebraska's U.S. Senate race, in which the actor and comedian demonstrates how to build a wad of paper while cue cards offering praise for Kerrey are displayed on the screen.

Martin, playing the role of "home crafts expert," mangles a blank single sheet of white paper with paper clips, scissors, staples, chewing gum and a hammer, while a hand emerges from off screen offering typed messages in praise of Kerrey.

"He is a principled man whom I have known and respected for many years," reads one.

"But most of all... He is sane. And his ideas are workable," reads another.

Kerrey, a Democrat, represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2001, when he moved to New York City to lead The New School university. He returned to Omaha this year to seek the seat of retiring U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat. Kerrey, who faces Republican State Senator Deb Fischer in the November 6 election, has trailed in polls.

Terminally Ill Woman Forced To Suffer

There should be no question that your life is yours and yours alone to do with as you wish.  This case terrifies me, because as long as a person is competent to make medical decisions (as she is in this case) the wishes of parents are trumping the medical rights of a 28-year-old woman.

She is paralyzed from the neck down, tethered to breathing and feeding tubes — but Manhattan bank manager Grace Sung Eun Lee still managed to mouth four words Wednesday. 

“I want to die.” 

Doctors are trying to honor Lee’s wish, but her devout parents believe that removing the tubes is suicide — a sin that would condemn the 28-year-old to hell. 

They’ve gone to court to keep the terminally ill brain-cancer patient on life support, turning a heartbreaking family tragedy into a right-to-die legal battle.

Her future is determined.  She is not going to overcome this, nor is she going to pull through.  She does not want to prolong her pain, and I do not blame her.

When I went through my medical training, we were drilled on the importance of one of the least taught aspects of our medical rights: we can refuse treatment.  This is for a host of reasons, from experimentation to personal choices to one-off situations.  But the bottom line is we can refuse treatment, and should be able to in order to have freedom over our very lives.

In this case, Lee's parents are being selfish and making their daughter pay the price.  As long as they appeal and stall she will be forced to dwindle and suffer for their hollow victory.  Nobody wins, and this case plays out over and over, all around the country.

The right to die is one we should allow and protect.  The feelings of one person should not be able to override the medical rights of another.  We need to learn our place and let freedom of choice empower people to do what they feel is right.  It's their own life, after all.

Bonus Mitt Romney Stupidity (Special Edition)

TMZ is getting in the politics game, throwing this nice little zinger at Mitt Romney:

President Obama's peeps say Mitt Romney is gonna be sorry for blowing off a bunch of kids who participated in the Nickelodeon show, "Kids Pick the President."

The premise of the show -- kids submit questions to each candidate and based on the answers they make their pick for leader of the free world.  

Obama answered the kids' questions, but Romney said he didn't have the time.

Deputy National Press Secretary Adam Fetcher tells TMZ, "It's no surprise Romney decided to play hookey.  Kids demand details, and I'm sure they want some answers on why Romney could increase their class sizes, eliminate their teacher's jobs, raise taxes on their families and slash funding for Big Bird."

They don't stay neutral, they just don't go out of their way to go after either candidate.  At least, until handed pure gold like this.  It really does say a lot, and I'm glad Obama answered their questions.  Then again, he doesn't have a reason to be ashamed of himself, and Romney does.

Just a little bonus awesomeness from ZVTS, pleas e enjoy the rest of your day!

Man's Best Friend

Zander, a white samoyed-husky mix, navigated two miles of tricky neighborhoods and across a busy highway to find his owner who was in the hospital, and now he's not leaving his side.

As John Dolan lay in his hospital bed at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Islip, N.Y., Sept. 27, he got a phone call from a hospital employee that he had to come get his dog. One problem, Dolan was inside the hospital and his wife, Priscilla, was asleep at home.

When Zander and Dolan were finally reunited, they couldn't be happier.

"He's my boy. He's been glued to me ever since," Dolan told "Good Morning America" today.

Dolan called his wife last Thursday to tell her to come get Zander outside the hospital. She didn't know he was missing until she got the call.

While Dolan was in the hospital he was very sad and moping around the house, Priscilla Dolan said. He was missing his best friend.

"He sleeps right next to John and John walks him a lot," Priscilla Dolan said.

It's a surprising story but not unheard of for an animal to track his owner.  Still, John Dolan is a lucky fellow, and I hope that Zander gets to go home with his friend.

Buzz Off, Creep

Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger has decided that last Wednesday's debate was the impetus he needed to go from "life-long Democrat" to "Romney moderate".  If you can stop laughing at that moronic leap of non-logic to read the rest of Bissinger proving he should stick to sports and not politics, it's comedy gold on par with the best of the Village Idiots.  Here's a taste:

I have never seen a performance worse than Obama’s, distracted, his head dipped into the podium as if avoiding the smell of something rotten, acting above the very idea that a debate does provide a pivotal referendum on his first term as it has for all incumbent presidents, whipsawed by the legion of usual advisers telling him to play defense when his own intuition should have told him that he needed to go on the offensive as Romney slapped him around.

But there was more than the entitlement of entitlement. He struck me as burnt out, tired of selling his message although he has always been terrible at selling his message when it veers from idealism into the practical.

By instinct I still cling to my Democrat roots. But I admit that as I get older, on the cusp of 58, I am moving more to the center or even tweaking right, or at least not tied to any ideology. Those making more than $250,000 should pay more taxes, and that does include me. But I also am tired of Obama’s constant demonization, of those he spits out as “millionaires and billionaires,” as pariahs. Romney’s comments at a fundraiser were stupid, but 47 percent of Americans do not pay federal income taxes. Yes, a majority are poor and seniors. But millions do not pay such taxes with incomes of more than $50,000, and whether it’s as little as $10, every American should contribute both as a patriotic obligation and skin in the game. This is our country, not our country club.

Come to think of it, Buzz here probably does have a long and glorious future career as rich white dude scolding the rest of us lazy schlubs over at the NY Times or Washington Post, I would imagine.  Look, if any part of your "middle-aged crisis conversion to Republican" speech involved your belief that President Obama is acting privileged and entitled, and that Mitt Romney is a regular Joe Moderate, I call bullshit on you ever being a liberal in the first place.

He even uses the odious phrase  "skin in the game", which is Villager 101 for "screw you poor people, it's time for you to suffer.  You've had it too easy."  If your train of thought involves you coming around to "toss a few of those folks into the volcano to please the island gods" you were never, ever a liberal.  You're just an asshole.

Buzz's article is so intellectually bankrupt, I swear it's recycled Bobo Angst and Friedman's Mustache, but the entire argument is too sophomoric for even that level of effort.  It's Bobo and Friedman's Mustache phoning it in after an all-night bender of NCIS episodes, unsweetened iced tea and boneless teriyaki wings, and by "all-night" I mean 11 PM.

Like I said, he'll fit in fine over there.

We Don't Know What We're Doing, Frankly

CNN profiles the mythical "undecided voters" in America's swing states, and it paints a depressing portrait of people who basically blame Obama for not fixing things without mentioning that little problem with GOP obstruction at every turn.  Four of the six voted for him in 2008, and five of the six think the problem is with him.  At no point do Republicans get the blame, other than a general distrust of Romney (all six don't trust the GOP candidate.)

The profile of single female voter Laura Palmer is typical:

Picture a presidential race in which the candidates ditch the insults. Visualize campaigns that inspire with positivity. Believe that you don't have to cut through the noise to figure out who these two men are, and what their leadership would look like in the years ahead, because they will tell you.

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, can let go of their fears and rise above the negativity. They can stop talking about the other guy, get in touch with their own hearts and simply speak their truth to the American people.

Sound hokey or ridiculous? It might. But if you're Laura Palmer, a former Washington insider, a shift like this -- by either candidate -- would snag her vote.

Palmer, 36, represents one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country: unmarried women. They account for a quarter of America's voting population. And in 2008, women in general voted at a higher rate -- casting 10 million more ballots than men.

In Palmer's adopted hometown of Alexandria, a disproportionate number of women are unmarried compared to the rest of the country. And in a swing state like Virginia, where every vote counts, Palmer matters.

But until she sees which man is better able to step outside himself and above the polarity, she will remain undecided.

WHY IS OBAMA SO MEAN!   Why can't he just fix Washington, that's why I voted for him!  It gives me a headache.  Here's a voter who simply doesn't understand that for Democrats and Republicans to get along in Washington, one side wants to, and the other side will simply wreck the country until they get what they want.  It's not polarizing, partisan opinion, it's actual fact as stated by my own senator, Mitch McConnell:  "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president".

Such denial is depressing, and yet these are the voters that both sides will need in order to win. Educating these folks, if you know them, should be a goal of yours.  Talk to them if you can.

You need to.

StupidiNews!

• Hugo Chavez has won re-election in Venezuela with 54% of the vote, earning another six year term.
• Student, parents and faculty at the University of South Alabama are asking questions about the shooting death of a naked freshman by campus police.
• Turkish PM Recep Erdogan is warning that Syria risks open war with Turkey if the neighboring al-Assad regime does not stop shelling border positions.
• Yet another meeting of EU finance ministers today will address Spain, Cyprus, and Greece as the Eurozone turmoil continues.
• The launch of private space company SpaceX's Dragon capsule has gone off without a hitch as the unmanned cargo capsule launched Sunday and has docked to resupply the ISS.

Last Call

Your nightly read comes from TNR's Alec MacGillis on the biggest employer in Ohio coal country along the West Virginia border:  Murray Energy.  CEO Bob Murray is a major backer of the Republican Party...and apparently he seems to think his employees should be backing the GOP too.  This year that means the company line is "give to Mitt Romney, and give till it hurts."

Over the years, CEO Robert Murray has brought in GOP pols from as far away as Alaska, California, and Massachusetts for fund-raisers. In 2010, the year John Boehner became House speaker, the firm’s 3,000 employees and their families were his second-biggest source of funds. (AT&T was in first place, but it has nearly 200,000 employees.) This year, Murray is one of the most important GOP players in one of the most important battleground states in the country. In May, he hosted a $1.7 million fund-raiser for Romney. Employees have given the nominee more than $120,000. In August, Romney used Murray’s Century Mine in the town of Beallsville for a speech attacking Barack Obama as anti-coal. This fall, scenes from that event—several dozen coal-smudged Murray miners standing behind the candidate in a tableau framed by a giant American flag and a COAL COUNTRY STANDS WITH MITT placard—have shown up in a Romney ad.

The ads aired even after Ohio papers reported what I was told by several miners at the event, a bit of news that an internal memo confirms: The crowd was not there of its own accord. Murray had suspended Century’s operations and made clear to workers that they were expected to attend, without pay. “I tell ya, you’ve got a great boss,” Romney said in acknowledging Robert Murray from the stage. “He runs a great operation here.”

Gosh, he sure does.  Ahh, but it gets worse.  Not only is Bob making sure that being a good company man involved backing Romney whether the rank and file want to or not, but part of the responsibility of management appears to have extra financial incentive tied into it.

The accounts of two sources who have worked in managerial positions at the firm, and a review of letters and memos to Murray employees, suggest that coercion may also explain Murray staffers’ financial support for Romney. Murray, it turns out, has for years pressured salaried employees to give to the Murray Energy political action committee (PAC) and to Republican candidates chosen by the company. Internal documents show that company officials track who is and is not giving. The sources say that those who do not give are at risk of being demoted or missing out on bonuses, claims Murray denies.

The Murray sources, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, came forward separately. But they painted similar pictures of the fund-raising operation. “There’s a lot of coercion,” says one of them. “I just wanted to work, but you feel this constant pressure that, if you don’t contribute, your job’s at stake. You’re compelled to do this whether you want to or not.” Says the second: “They will give you a call if you’re not giving. . . . It’s expected you give Mr. Murray what he asks for.”

Hey, after all, he signs your checks, right?  You're employed because of him, you owe him everything as an employee, including your political fealty as well.

But of course, these are the people also telling you that President Obama is a fascist who will take your rights and smash your freedoms.  Funny how that works.

The Kroog Versus Our Post-Factual Media

Paul Krugman came right out and said what Ian Boudreau and I were discussing on Saturday's podcast, namely that our "both sides do it" Village media is incapable of calling out Republican lies without equating them to whatever sin the Democrats have committed.

On ABC's "This Week" roundtable Sunday, Paul Krugman said Mitt Romney is exploiting a press that is ineffective at holding politicians accountable for lies.

"The press just doesn’t know how to handle flat-out untruths," he said.

"I don’t know whether to blame [the debate moderator Jim] Lehrer or the president, but it was kind of amazing because Romney was not only saying things that are not true, he was saying things that his own campaign had previously said weren’t true,” said the economist and New York Times columnist.

Citing Romney's claims on taxes and preexisting conditions, Krugman said the Republican nominee showed "contempt for us by thinking the news media will not cover on me as long as they say forcefully I won."

Almost immediately tjereafter, GOP press flack Mary Matalin proved Krugman's point, berating him and announcing to Krugman:

"You have mischaracterized and you have lied about every position and every particular of the Ryan plan on Medicare, from the efficiency of Medicare administration, to calling it a voucher plan, so you’re hardly credible on calling somebody else a liar."

Except, you know, Krugman is right about Ryan's Vouchercare nonsense.

But this is exactly what the Ryan proposal is — turning Medicare from a “defined benefit” into a “defined contribution” plan. Seniors would get a voucher from the federal government that they could use to help pay for a selection of private plans.

Although the Romney/Ryan campaign has shied away from this phrase in favor of the euphemistic “premium support,” Ryan himself has specifically referred to his proposal as a “voucher” program in the past.

That's exactly what it does.  And as President Obama pointed out at the debate, the problem with this is that insurance companies are not required to give coverage nor to approve medical care.  Under Ryan's Vouchercare scheme, the insurance companies get to decide still.  Defined contribution, meaning you pay into the program.  Not defined benefit, because coverage under the program is NOT GUARANTEED.

Do we get it now finally?

Show Me Ethics: Springfield City Council Can Still Do The Right Thing

This is no longer about marijuana, it is about doing the right and ethical thing.  Springfield City Council pulled a dirty move in an "apparently legal" strategy (there's some fine reporting, News-Leader) that lets them adopt a bill only to gut it or repeal it at their convenience.

It was nothing more than a move to keep this from a vote by Springfield citizens.  And that must not be tolerated by our government, especially in wake of their making it so they do not suffer the risk of being unseated by an election.

Maranda Reynolds, of Springfield Cannabis Regulation, said the group has decided not to pursue a referendum petition to undo council’s Sept. 24 repeal of the ordinance, which would have restricted the penalties that can be assessed for minor marijuana possession.

“We were thinking about a referendum, but we decided it would be unwise because (City Council) could use the same move they did with the petition to kill it,” Reynolds said. “We don’t want to take the risk of doing all that work again only to have them go around it.”

Supporters of the ordinance gathered more than 2,100 signatures, forcing council either to adopt the law as written or send it to a vote. They and other critics have accused council members of subverting the initiative petition process by approving the marijuana law only to repeal it at the first opportunity.

Apparently legal, the maneuver allowed council to avoid putting the proposed ordinance on the November ballot.

We must stand up for our right to be heard, and hold the council to their obligation to honor the law and the spirit of the law.  This is not the first time they've acted in lieu of allowing people a voice.  It simply has to stop.

They can still voluntarily put this to a vote.  They won't, but they could.

"Unbecoming" Behavior For A State Senator, Like Playing WoW

Republicans are going after Democrat candidate Colleen Lachowicz and comments made by her World of Warcraft character.  You can go here to read them in context.  All but one are ridiculous.  The bathtub comment was dumb but not threatening like it is being made out.  If one cannot distinguish between this and reality, that's a sad statement. As for any other comment she makes - tell me you have never thought or said something exactly like that.  I have, every person I know with Internet access at work has.  Whether it's WoW, your chat room, texting or personal email, we all check messages on the clock or surely wish we could. Online community ties mean online communication, which means virtually all are all tempted to check our Facebook or other accounts.

“This is not about her playing video games, this is about the comments she made while gaming,” David Sorenson, communications director for the Maine Republican party, told ABC News, referring to the comments about Norquist, as well as things said about other Republicans. “These are all things that are unbecoming to a state Senator.”

Lachowicz has appeared to shrug off the criticism. Her campaign released a statement on the attacks, criticizing Republicans for not talking about the issues.

“What’s really weird is that the Republicans are going after my hobbies instead of talking about their record while they’ve been running Augusta for the last two years. Instead of talking about what they’re doing for Maine people, they’re making fun of me for playing video games,” Lachowicz said in the statement.

Unbecoming to a state Senator?  Sounds a lot like Akin calling Claire McCaskill a wildcat who had been let out of her cage.  Or when he said she was unladylike because she dared show aggression in a campaign.  Sorry guys, women are people too.  We play online games, we fight back, we have a spine and a heart and a brain.  If we don't fit in the narrow apple pie baking June Cleaver mold it doesn't mean we are crazy.  It means anyone who expect half the population to act a certain way due to distorted memories of the good old days is crazy.

If Todd Akin can say women's bodies shut down pregnancies in cases of legitimate rape, she's going to have to work hard to top that.  Anyone who can defend Akin and come after her is a hypocrite and a jackass.

Why Obama Now: The Video

Professional animator Lucas Gray (who has worked on The Simpsons and Family Guy) put together this video, with President Obama's own words, as the case for four more years.



It's rather compelling.  Do give it a watch.

Last Call

The way I figure it, there's five questions to ask about the "Romney Bounce" in the polls in the wake of the debate, or any poll "game changer" going forward.

1. Is there a measurable shift in the polls?
2. If so, how much of a shift?
3. How long will the shift last?
4. Is is affecting down ticket races?
5. Can they maintain that momentum?

Josh Marshall discusses evidence pertaining to the first three questions.

Put all this together and you start to see a pretty clear picture. In the immediate aftermath of the debate, Romney made a rapid move in all the tracking polls. And that move — in the low-mid single digits — appears to have been replicated in a number of swing states to various degrees.

So yes, there's your answer to numbers 1 and 2.  Yes there's a bounce, and it appears to be about a 4-6 point immediate shift.

But.  And there's always a but.  The debate event was followed by the jobs numbers on Friday and the jobless rate falling big time.  Considering all sides agree that jobs and the economy are the biggest issue in this election, that can't be ignored either.  So let's look at question 3.

A bounce like this can be ephemeral of course. And the silver lining in today’s numbers for Obama is that there’s at least some evidence that Romney’s momentum has plateaued or even fallen back. The Reuters-Ipsos online tracking poll moved to a 2 point margin yesterday from a 5 point margin the day before. That was with 2 days of 4 of post-debate data. Today though it held steady at a 2 point margin for Obama with 3 of 4 days of post debate data.

PPP polls also gave some hints about the polling its done over the last 3 days. PPP’s twitter feed said Friday’s polling was actually worse for Obama than Thursday. But it also noted that “Saturday interviews we’ve done for polls across the country look a lot more like our pre-debate than Friday numbers.” In other words, PPP’s data seemed to go from bad for Obama on Thursday to really bad for Obama on Friday and then back to something more like the pre-debate numbers on Saturday.

As far as I can tell, PPP and Ipsos are the only two outlets from which we have late Friday and Saturday data. And both seem to suggest either a plateau or fall off of Romney’s surge of support from the debate.

It's entirely possible then that the jobs numbers may have in turn arrested Romney's rise in the polls.  We won't know for sure for another several days, but I'm betting the Romney bump, unlike the Obama surge since the DNC, will be much shorter-lived.

Don't panic.